Arkansas punishes Auburn

Arkansas forward Jessica Jackson tied a career-high with 22 points Sunday at Missouri. The Razorbacks won 69-66.
Arkansas forward Jessica Jackson tied a career-high with 22 points Sunday at Missouri. The Razorbacks won 69-66.

Jessica Jackson scored 18 points and Jhasmin Bowen had 17 to lead Arkansas to a 54-36 victory over Auburn on Sunday at Auburn Arena in Auburn, Ala.

The Razorbacks (15-9, 5-7 SEC) outscored the Tigers 7-0 during one stretch of the first half to take the lead and then held Auburn (9-16, 0-12) scoreless for 6:25 in the second half to secure the victory.

The Razorbacks, who are tied with Georgia for seventh in the 14-team conference, shot 42.6 percent and held Auburn to 15 second-half points. It was the Tigers' lowest point total of the season.

"Defensively we were really, really good," Arkansas Coach Jimmy Dykes said. "We held Auburn to 23 percent, 36 points on their home floor. The fact we only turned it over 11 times was huge. We thought if we could get our defense set, we were going to be in good shape in this game, and we did.

"Gave them a couple of run-outs in the first half, but my team is really, really tough. It is a resilient group. I love their toughness, I love their fight, and we got out of here with a win."

The Razorbacks gradually pulled away during the first half.

Arkansas' outscored Auburn 7-0 to take a 20-15 lead, and with Jackson scoring 10 of her points in the first half, Arkansas led 30-21 at halftime.

Auburn scored 15 points in the second half.

"I really think we're a much better team than what we showed today," Auburn Coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said. "We didn't shoot the ball extremely well, and not shooting the ball really hurt us."

Bowen had eight at halftime with six of nine players scoring in the first 20 minutes. The Razorbacks struggled early with turnovers but the second 10 minutes saw Arkansas take better care of the ball and improve their shooting. Arkansas finished the half shooting 46.7 percent on 14 for 30 from the floor at the half.

Jackson finished as the game's leading scorer with 18 points. It is the 18th time the sophomore from Jacksonville has scored at least 10 points this season. Jackson also had 7 rebounds and 6 assists in 35 minutes.

Junior Melissa Wolff led Arkansas with nine rebounds. Senior Calli Berna recorded her fifth game of the season playing at least 40 minutes and finished with 3 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists.

"We can improve in a lot of ways," Dykes said. "This was our third game in seven days so we had to fight through a lot of different stuff today. Our team is tough; it is a resilient group of young ladies. We won the rebounding game, which was important, and we only had two turnovers in the second half."

Sports on 02/16/2015

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